Distributed architecture for a telecommunications system

Abstract

A method of call processing includes passing, over a local area network, control signals from a centralized controller to each of a plurality of decentralized processors. The method also includes having each of the plurality of decentralized processors, in response to the control signals, executing decentralized call control functions.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A method of call processing, comprising: 
 passing, over a local area network, control signals from a centralized controller to each of a plurality of decentralized processors,    each of the plurality of decentralized processors, in response to the control signals, executing decentralized call control functions.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein passing, over a local network, control signals comprises loading control data from an external device.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the control data includes data associated with performing maintenance functions.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the maintenance functions include centralized monitoring.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the maintenance functions include a redundancy failover.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising interfacing the distributed processors by tying to a set of soft switch protocols.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is a mainframe.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein passing control signals is performed using an Internet protocol.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising associating at a physical layer addresses of the distributed processors with physical locations.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising overwriting default address with an internal address.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each of the distributed processors is associated with at least one access device.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein each of the distributed processors is associated with at least one access device over a wide area network.  
     
     
         13 . A call processing system comprising: 
 a centralized controller to send control signals to a plurality of distributed processors,    a local area network to couple the centralized controller to each of the plurality of distributed processors to perform decentralized call processing.    
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the control signals are associated with performing maintenance functions.  
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein each distributed processor has data physical layer addresses that are location based.  
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein each distributed processor interface has a soft-switch architecture.  
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein each distributed processor communicates over a wide area network to access gateway devices.  
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the gateway devices include a voice over asynchronous transfer mode gateway.  
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the gateway devices include a voice over internet protocol gateway.  
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein each distributed processor has another processor that serves as a redundant partner.  
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein each processor has a software task.  
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the software task is an independent call-processing entity.  
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 13 , further comprising a packet manager interfacing with an interconnect controller.  
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 23 , wherein the packet manager interfaces at least one of a server, a router or a firewall.  
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 24 , further comprising an interconnect controller providing a bidirectional interface between the controller and the distributed processors, the packet manager and signaling gateway  
     
     
         26 . The system of  claim 25 , wherein the centralized controller sends broadcast messages to control the processors.  
     
     
         27 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the centralized controller includes a local area network control and monitoring device and a call control device.  
     
     
         28 . The system of  claim 27 , wherein the call control device interfaces with telephony signaling network.  
     
     
         29 . The system of  claim 28 , wherein the telephony signaling network is an SS7 network.  
     
     
         30 . The system of  claim 13 , further comprising a packet manager interfacing with the centralized controller.